LOST - The Incident

Okay that was definitely a "WOW" and a "Whoa!!!" of a season finale for LOST.

Jacob possesses Richard Alpert's (aka "Richardus") anti-aging powers. In fact, he was responsible for giving them to our guy-linered friend.

Jacob also seemed to play a part in bringing the Losties to the island. We saw him playing a small part in each of their lives prior to and after their fateful crash on the island. Oddly, Jacob gave a young reckless Katie Austen instructions to "Be good"--which of course she ignored. Conversely, Jacob provided a young, orphaned Sawyer the pen with which to write his poison pen letter to Mr. Sawyer (aka John Locke's conman daddy).

It was Sawyer's uncle who told the young James, "What's done is done," which evoked Daniel Faraday's "Whatever happened, happened."

Later, Jack tells Sawyer, "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

Same thing, different words.

It wasn't a good name if your character's name started with a J: Jacob was stabbed by Ben and pushed into the fire by Locke (aka the smoke monster?), Juliet got sucked down the drill shaft by the electromagnetic energy field and John Locke--well, it turns out dead IS dead.

(It also wasn't a good night if your name was Sayid, Phil or if you were a Dharma extra...)

The episode opened with Jacob and an unknown rival. Their Cain and Abel relationship reminded me of the rivalry between Widmore and Ben--although it's probably the other way around. The Black Rock sails into view and man #2 (the credited name for Titus Welliver's character) remarks, "They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt."

"Do you have an idea how badly I want to kill you?" he asks Jacob. Apparently he's looking for a loophole, which seems to be that HE can't kill Jacob but someone else can. Is this the beginning of those rules that Ben and Widmore quibbled over? That someone else turns out to be Ben, who is set up first by the smoke monster in the form of Alex and later as the smoke monster in the form of John Locke.

The smoke monster as Locke also sets up Locke when he tells Richard to tell him he's gonna have to die. So it wasn't Locke controlling his own destiny--it was the smoke monster!

So is Jacob good and Smoky bad? You had to love Lapidus' response to Bram's assertion that they are the good guys (Ilana and company appear to be on "Team Jacob"), "In my experience the people who go out of their way to tell you they're the good guys are the bad guys."

Jacob seemed all calm and benevolent, but while it seemed he prevented Sayid from getting hit by the same car that killed Nadia, he did nothing to prevent Nadia's death. He makes cameo appearances after Jack's first major surgery, at Sun and Jin's wedding (offering a blessing in Korean--was it Jacob who taught Charlotte the language?), while Locke lay bleeding on the ground after being pushed out the window by his Daddy and following Hurley's release from prison. And he was after all played by a drug addict and wife abuser (of Dexter fame)...

In the "wrapping up loose ends department," we were reunited briefly with Rose, Bernard and Vincent who had been living quite peacefully in the jungle. When they hear of the latest Lostie drama, Rose remarks, "It's always something with you people."

It was confirmed that Eloise was pregnant (with Daniel). We saw Sun retrieve Charlie's ring which he left for Claire in Aaron's cradle. How Pierre Chang lost his arm during the Incident. How Hurley came to have a guitar on the Ajira flight. Jack going all action hero on us (We knew he was good with a scapel--who knew he could handle a gun?) The Dharma van careening towards the Swan top support Jack in his mission was reminiscent of the season three finale.

And we got to see the fight that's been brewing since season one: the Jack and Sawyer smackdown.

For all the talk about a Juliet-Kate catfight, the two were pretty damned supportive of each other with Juliet backing Kate up to get off the sub and stop Jack and Kate trying desperately to keep Juliet from being sucked down the shaft. But that tragic event was ultimately the key to completing Jack's plan: a severely injured Juliet finding a rock and striking the bomb until it explodes.

Best lines of the night:

John: You mind if I ask you a question?
Ben: I'm a Pisces.

Locke to Richard upon arriving at the statue: "Well it's a wonderful foot, Richard--but what does it have to do with Jacob?"

Sawyer to Jack: "I don't speak "destiny.""

Juliet to Sawyer post smackdown: "I'm glad you finally got it out of your system."

Ben to "John" re: Jacob - "I lied. That's what I do."

Sun: What happened to the statue?
Ben: I don't know. It was like that when I got here.
Sun: Do you expect me to believe that?
Ben: Not really.

So, if the bomb worked then none of the casualties of last night's episode are dead, right? And what did Ilana mean about Frank Lapidus possibly being "a candidate?" Where was Desmond last night? And was that whole thing about Jacob spinning thread and weaving supposed to be a reference to Clotho, the Fate who spins the thread of life?

Eight long months, people. Until then, review the recap at Lostpedia, the screencaps at Dark UFO and Liz Kelly and Jen Chaney's Dueling Analyses at washingtonpost.com.

And perhaps post some theories of your own in the comments...